ELT World » Guessing vocab from context Your local friendly TEFL blog Fri, 04 Jun 2010 05:32:55 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 To get medieval on their asses or to not get medieval on their asses? /2009/09/to-get-medieval-on-their-asses-or-to-not-get-medieval-on-their-asses/ /2009/09/to-get-medieval-on-their-asses-or-to-not-get-medieval-on-their-asses/#comments Sun, 27 Sep 2009 13:22:31 +0000 david /?p=599 I’ve also posted this over on the ELT World Forum as I’m looking for as much advice on this as I can get. Basically, I’ve just been lumbered with absolute beginners at the beginning of the new academic year. Apart from anything else, this has scuppered several research projects I’d had in the offing, which would require students to respond with some degree of English, but I guess those can wait a while.

Anyhow, I’m planning to go ‘old school’ on their asses; lots of repetition drills, rote learning and the like. After nearly ten years in this profession, I’m starting (tongue firmly in cheek) to feel that the touchy feely stuff that I was brainwashed with on my CELTA was largely propagandist bullshit and that you can’t really learn vocab from context, nor can you acquire the language communicatively.

Anyone out there want to talk me out of this course of action, or merely correct me on my spelling of medieval?

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]]> /2009/09/to-get-medieval-on-their-asses-or-to-not-get-medieval-on-their-asses/feed/ 2 Guessing vocab from context… /2008/12/guesing-vocab-from-context/ /2008/12/guesing-vocab-from-context/#comments Mon, 29 Dec 2008 11:09:39 +0000 david /blog/?p=86 …is a really bad way to acquire new words, at least that’s what I rather provocatively suggested on a thread over on the ELT World forums.

Of course, it’s not an impossible skill, as many noted: ‘It’s possible,’ suggetsts Golightly, ‘but it depends on factors such as how concrete or abtract it is if it’s a noun, and relative similarity of the language to L1 – although that can also be a hindrance (false friends etc).’

‘Will probably depend on age and general literacy ability of your learners,’ adds Emma. ‘What I mean is an 18 year old will have a much broader L1 vocabulary than an 8 year old and will be better placed to infer meaning from context.’

Read the rest of the somewhat heated discussion here.

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